Pages

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,

It's been a week of crazy spring cleaning and 5 boxes to Goodwill since my last confession. I feel as while I am sorting out my house, I am sorting out my life, my mind, my projects. But I have to tell you, it feels so good to get a lot done.

But let me tell you, my thoughts are all over the place, watch out, I have no idea what I'm going to say...

To the confessional--

I confess I've been thinking about simplicity lately. About money and priorities. Fears and concerns. Along with abundance. And thankfulness.

I wish I had something smart to share here, except I don't. Except I feel I am constantly relearning the same things again and again. I'm the fish swimming around in my bowl constantly amazed every time I see the castle, the treasure chest.

~

I confess I have a love/hate relationship with Adsense.

For those those who don't know, Adsense ads are the ads you might see on a blog. I put one under my main post because as I mentioned last week, I'm needing new ways to earn some extra $ to help out my family with their goals/dreams.

In March, I made $6.42. Not enough for a vacation to Hawaii, but over a year, that's about $77. Again, not much, but there's an evening out, a few books, or a couple Kiva loans. I didn't really like having an ad on my blog (and in fact, I added the ad then removed it quite a few times over), but I confess, I liked the extra surprise money. And I'm a true believer in the idea that small things add up.

Recently however, an ad I don't agree with showed up, in fact it was an "anti" ad to an organization I believed in, so I decided to make this space Adsense-free.

I confess I don't know what other people think of ads on blogs. Or if we do think of them. Sometimes I don't think I see ads, but I'm sure I do. And while I don't necessarily like ads, I liked that corporations (and not individual readers) were paying me to write.

~

I confess when I go to other blogs I like (and read often), I sometimes click on their ads as a way of saying "Thank you" to the blogger.

So if you have a blog with ads and randomly earned some income-- You're welcome. ;-)
~

I confess I love the magazine Real Simple.

I learned in the last issue if you put your iPhone in a bowl, the bowl works as an amplifier. This saved me from having to go out and buy some gadget/speaker with batteries. I feel so high-tech Zen putting my iPhone in a bowl on my desk--old meets new--and I feel as if I've invented something magical.

~

I confess speaking old things for a new world, I downloaded Boggle onto my iPad (it's my favorite game, even more than Scrabble) and the iPad version is fantastic. And I hate to say it, the iPad version is even better than the 25 year-old Old School version I play with against my family. It has some extra features that offer some more advanced playing which I love.

~

I confess, I kick butt at Boggle.

And I confess, I have to tone it down when I play with my family or they won't play with me.

~

I confess I was at a Young Writers Conference recently and an adult author who was giving a talk to the kids told them, "You don't get rich as an author." And well, it really bothered me that he said that.

I think because he was talking from his own experience and calling it fact.

I think because there is more than one way to be rich.

And I think what really bugged me is that he gave his limiting belief to a room full of students he didn't know and who may not have this belief.

I didn't want him to lie, saying something like "You *will* get rich as a writer" because that's not necessarily true either, but I was bothered that he said, "You don't get rich..." instead "I didn't get rich" or "Some people don't earn a lot as a writer" or "I may not have made a lot of money at it, but it fulfills me in ways money can't buy..." anything else but stating his life as our fact.

~

I confess when I'm annoyed with other people I try to figure what it is about that person that reminds me of myself or connects with me them.

I think in this case, I realized I don't like other people to limit mine (or others) possibilities.

Plus, "rich" is subjective. And you can be rich in more than one way.

And maybe his "rich" lacks perspective.
His rich doesn't look very far and definitely not over into other borders.

Let me explain:

If you make more than $25,400 a year than you are in the richest 10% of the world.

If you make $33,700 a year, you're in the top 5% of the world's richest people.

And if you make over $47,500 a year, congratulations, you're one of the world richest people. You're in the top 1% of the world society.

So I think when that author said, "You won't get rich," I wanted to say, "We already are."

~

And I confess maybe my annoyance with him was really an annoyance with myself for also forgetting to look at the bigger picture as well.

I can easily live in my American world with my iPad, and hot showers, and typing to you on my laptop, and opening the window to my bedroom where no one is being shot or bombed below my bedroom window and I forget. I constantly forget how much I have.

~

I confess this is not at all what I thought I'd confess today. Isn't that always the way?

6 comments:

I know what you mean about the ads... the love/hate thing. I will tell you that as opinionated as I am I've killed the ad content of several ads. You can do that and I have no problem doing so, Actually exercising my ax to certain ads has actually been therapeutic. :)

Kelli, I am so glad you got rid of the ads! I understand the zing of surprise cash -- like finding a five in your pocket -- but I thoughts the ads cheapened your thoughtful commentary on creativity.

Just before reading your blog, I was reading a new blog. It had a really annoying audio-ad that just wouldn't end, and I couldn't concentrate on the text. While the blog was really intriquing, I just couldn't take the intrusive ad, and clicked away.

I love your comments on what it means to be "rich." What a great reminder to appreciate what we already have. It's so easy to be envious over what other people have that we don't, but the most important things--safety, family--aren't things that can be bought easily with money.

Drew-- I agree. I think wanting this blog to be a place where we focus on creativity and writing and not being sold whatever random ad is appearing on the page is ultimately the right choice. I'm glad I made it. For me, it's worth it to miss the ZING of cash. I can ZING in other ways. ;-)

SL-- Exactly. It's an American culture thing to immediately associate rich with money.

And also in being envious-- many times we only see the "stuff" when we look at other people, what we don't see is that maybe they are feeling unfulfilled or they are very unhappy, maybe these people are looking at someone else's life who has time, family, etc. and wish they were them.